engineers in the [Detroit] areaand the automotive industryis huge there, so it was a bigmarket for a good car club.”Many associated with Christie’sclub were into autocrossing,but then a new guy, fresh fromUtah, approached her witha question. “He came to meand said, ‘Hey, are there anyracetracks around here?’ That’swhen I found Waterford Hills...andwe decided to go to a track day.”Absent a track-worthy carherself, she took her mother’ssporty sedan to Waterford. “Afterthat track day, I learned how to domy first brake job,” she chuckles.

Hooked, she bought a
Subaru and jumped in full bore,
logging about 10 track events
that year at either Waterford
Hills or Gingerman, including
one of the first SCCA Track
Night in America events.

“Then winter came, and
I started ice racing,” she says
of the colder months of 2014.

“Saginaw Valley Region ofthe SCCA does ice racing inMichigan...and I had never iceraced before,” she says. “That wasa totally new experience and ithelped me a lot with car control.”Despite being outgoing andseemingly willing to jump intoany situation, Christie still foundracing on ice intimidating. “I’dnever driven around on a lakebefore, and I was pretty badat the beginning – but I gotpretty good by the end,” sherecalls, noting that playingon the ice helped her on drypavement, too. “That was thething with ice racing – youhave to figure out wherethere is traction and wherethere isn’t, and that translatedover to dry pavement.”With the ice thawed in

2015, Christie pushed forward
with track events. “I ended up
doing something like 22 track
days in the Subaru and never
crashed it,” she laughs with
the contagious and welcoming
chuckle you quickly come to
know when you speak with her.

“That was the year I got outto Mid-Ohio and I did Grattana lot, went to Waterford, andI kept working with [30-yearSCCA member and road racer]Danny Kellermeyer and gettingfaster. I decided I wanted tomove on to club racing.”Another season of ice racinglater, Christie headed back toWaterford Hills for an SCCAcompetition license schoolin early 2016 – but “ChristieScheduling” once again cameinto play. “At the same time,I decided I wanted to go back to

FINDING THE WAY

Late night car meets led Christie to autocross, track days,
ice racing, and now SCCA Road Racing (ABOVE). She
currently races Spec Miata, but being a GM employee, she
sees herself in a Corvette later in her racing career.

“ That was a totallynew experienceand it helped a lotwith car control”CHRISTIE BAGNE